Name: Rishi Shah
Title: Senior Director, Sustainability
Company: Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
Years with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts: Three years, 10 months
Primary Responsibility: “Advancing the Wyndham Green Program. Spearheading our ESG reporting efforts. Coordinating our annual ESG report.”
Organization’s most significant accomplishment in social purpose and sustainability: “The one I am most proud about is incorporating sustainability in all 24 brands and making Wyndham Green Level One a requirement.”
Organization’s most significant challenge moving forward in social purpose and sustainability: “As the world’s largest franchising company, it is a lot of stakeholders to get moving. Owners are wearing multiple hats. Making sustainability as easy as possible.”
PARSIPPANY, N.J.—Imagine overseeing the environmental efforts of more than 9,000 hotels in 95 countries that represent 24 brands in segments from extended stay to distinctive. Then imagine having the ability to help reduce the environmental impact of that many properties.
Says Rishi Shah, Senior Director, Sustainability for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts about his role with Wyndham, which has such a global reach, “Every day is different. I get to meet a lot of great franchisees and hear their stories. I can influence more than 9,000 hotels around the globe.”
Shah is not alone in his efforts. “This is a collaboration that goes across the operations to continue the education process,” he says. “We have an ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) Steering Committee and an Environmental Subcommittee. [A focus on the environment] touches all pieces of the organization.”
Wyndham Green Certification
Uniquely, Wyndham, as part of its environmental management program called Wyndham Green, has its own internal Wyndham Green Certification program composed of five progressive levels, with five to seven elements per level that address goals including energy and water conservation, waste diversion, and operational efficiency, as well as guest, team member, and franchisee education and engagement. All properties are required to at least be at Level 1. Beginning at Level 2, properties are required to have green teams—yet another layer of associates implementing and pushing green practices.
Shah says the first three levels include low-cost initiatives but at Level 5, more substantial investments are made—renewable energy systems, for example. There are about 10 properties at Level Five. An example of a franchisee that has embraced renewable energy is Starry Night Lodging + RV. It has solar arrays at its two properties in Gardiner, Mont.—a Travelodge and a Super 8.
“Wyndham Green Certification, rolled out just before the pandemic, was developed to show our hotels how to reduce costs through efficiency,” Shah says. “It is a practical guide to make sustainability easy and achievable. We are very focused on providing value to our owners—a roadmap for them. We try to be as consultative as possible.”
Moving forward, Shah says one of his main goals is to get more and more hotels certified and those at Level 1 to Level 2.
Last month, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) signed a Letter of Intent to form a joint venture company that will own and operate the Green Key Global certification program in the United States and Canada. The joint venture, with buy-in from major brands, will help the industry coalesce around one single, easily scalable certification program.
Regarding this recent news, Shah said, “I think it is a step in the right direction. There are so many state and regional certifications. We as an industry needed to come together on one.”
Wyndham Green Toolbox
In addition to certification, the other key part of Wyndham Green is the Wyndham Green Toolbox. An online environmental management system, it is specifically designed to track, measure, and report on global performance in energy, emissions, water consumption, and waste diversion while still providing each individual hotel with its environmental footprint. Data-driven insights allow Wyndham to identify risks and challenges in various markets to help ensure that all are striving toward the company’s performance targets. Individual properties can also track and measure the impacts of implemented efficiencies. Wyndham can monitor and benchmark each hotel’s progress, helping them to reduce operating costs and the company’s collective environmental impact. Shah says the Toolbox serves as a “best practices library.”
Now out of the hotel ownership business, Shah says Wyndham still manages about 60 properties globally, down from around 100 at the end of last year. For those properties Wyndham has set numerous environmental goals for 2025. One example is the elimination of single-use plastics. By the end of 2022, bulk amenity dispensers had been made available to all Wyndham properties and Wyndham Green Certified Level 3, 4 or 5 properties have water bottle refill stations. Another 2025 goal is 100 percent sourcing of cage-free eggs. As of year-end 2022, 100 percent sourcing options were available to U.S. hotels (67 percent total global portfolio).
When asked about Wyndham’s commitment to LEED certification, Shah said it is up to each individual franchisee to pursue LEED or not. That said, Wyndham’s headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. is LEED Gold certified and Wyndham’s Echo Suites and Microtel Moda prototypes were designed with efficiency in mind.
On Wyndham’s website, a section is dedicated to Social Responsibility. “Consumers are looking for more information and more transparency,” Shah says. “We felt it was important to be as educational as possible.”
Hotel Management Experience
For Shah, stepping into the role of Senior Director, Sustainability for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts was a logical next step for him. He previously ran businesses that helped hotels create energy-reduction strategies and paired them with products and technologies that reduced operating costs while increasing the long-term value of each commercial asset. He was also a general manager and director of operations at hotels in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one of which had a 756-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system on 10 carports in the hotel’s parking area.
When asked what inspired him to take his sustainability path, Shah said, “Growing up I always saw my family wanting to help others. In 2008 during the Great Recession, it forced us to try to control our expenses. Then my first son was born. I thought about his future and wanting to leave this Earth a better place. Shah says he was also inspired by Faith Taylor, formerly Senior VP of Corporate Social Responsibility and Chief Sustainability Officer for Wyndham Worldwide.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at greenlodgingnews@gmail.com.
